


Black Leather

by SailorChibi



Series: Imagine Bucky and Tony [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky feels guilty, Domestic Avengers, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Pre-Slash, Protective Bucky Barnes, Team as Family, Tony Stark Has A Heart, it was for science, the winter soldier has a heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-19 23:44:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9465872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: The Soldier is drawn to Tony's workshop. Later, Bucky feels guilty finding comfort there - but Tony knows more than he thinks.Prompt: Imagine Bucky is brought back to the Tower by Steve, but he walks around like a ghost, and won't go near anyone, including Steve most days. Then he finds Tony's workshop and the bots, and spends most of his time down there, particularly once he realized Tony tends to forget he's there. This leads to Tony being the first friend he makes in the Tower, while he's even still avoiding Steve.combined withPrompt: When WS killed Tony's parents the mission was supposed to be kidnap Tony (so Hydra could have their own genius weapons designer) but after watching the family for weeks, Bucky couldn't let Hydra take Tony





	

**Author's Note:**

> Third prompt for the [Imagine Tony x Bucky blog](http://imaginetonyandbucky.tumblr.com/).

The Soldier spends the first two months learning every inch of Avengers Tower, starting from the first floor (reception: status: not a threat) to the top floor (the floor of the thunder god Thor: status: level one threat), until there is only one floor left. 

Stark's workshop is not what he's expecting, though the Soldier would be unable to put what he was expecting into words even if commanded. The workshop is a myriad of colorful, bright lights and Stark's loud, exaggeratedly annoyed voice bouncing off the smoother, exasperated voice of Stark's A.I. (Jarvis: status: level two threat, possible upgrade pending a closer examination of the coding). When the two of them finally fall silent, music starts to play. It's hideously loud and the Soldier knows that Stark can't hear a damn thing over it, so this would be the perfect time to look around.

He leaves.

He comes back within two days, though, because Stark's workshop needs to be plotted and he has no other missions, nothing with which to occupy his time except avoiding the Avengers, especially Steve (Captain America: status: ????). Steve has the tendency to look at the Soldier like he's waiting for something to happen, and it sends all of the Soldier's senses into overdrive. It makes him itch for action. The rest of the Avengers collectively look at the Soldier like they're waiting for that action to happen; like they're itching to deal with the aftermath.

The first time he goes into the workshop, Stark looks at him for approximately three seconds and then his attention slides back onto the sparking wire in his hands and the Soldier feels, oddly, like that's permission.

So even after the Soldier slowly melts away (yes, like ice thawing, thank you for that stunningly hilarious commentary, Clint), Bucky keeps spending time in the workshop. He figures out pretty quick that Stark knows he's there every time, but Stark is kind enough not to kick him out even though Bucky thinks that he should. 

The workshop is probably the one place in the tower that the rest of the team rarely goes; Banner will come by once in a while, usually to join Stark in an experiment, but down here Bucky can be relatively sure he won't run into anyone. 

It's peaceful, for lack of a better term, though Bucky's not sure he can even remember what peace feels like. He's got a little space carved out for himself; it's to the right of the couch that Stark regularly crashes on, giving him something solid to lean against while still allowing a full view of the room. Bucky sits on the floor with his back to the wall and just watches. He never sleeps, never speaks, and is always gone long before Stark snaps out of his engineering binges and actually remembers that there's a world around him.

Food is unfortunately still a necessity, serum-enhanced body or not, and one morning Bucky steals into the kitchen particularly early only to find it crammed full of the rest of the team: Wilson and Steve are bickering over eggs, Romanov, Barton and the female Maximoff are playing some complicated card game while the male Maximoff and Vision watch, Rhodes is fumbling with the coffee pot while muttering at Potts. Banner is sitting at the table, blinking slowly at a newspaper. No one looks at Bucky, yet there's noticeable tension in the air and Bucky stiffens.

And then Stark strolls in, covered in foam from head to toe, nudges Bucky aside, and grandly sweeps his arms out as he announces, "Brucie, I may need your help with something later."

"Tony, what the hell?" Steve says. "Did you explode something again?"

"It was for -"

"If you say science, Shellhead, so help me -"

Stark looks over his shoulder at Bucky and winks, then says, "I wasn't going to say science, I was going to say it was for the pursuit of knowledge."

"That's science!" Steve exclaims, sounding somewhere between outraged and amused, fully exasperated, and not at all focused on Bucky. Bucky takes his chance and slips out, grabbing a couple of bananas on his way out the door.

Later, Bucky makes his way down to the workshop again. Curiosity drives him through the doors to where the room is strangely silent. Instead of working on something, Stark is sitting at his desk and staring off into space. One hand rests on his chest, tapping an absent rhythm against the arc reactor. Bucky stops a couple of steps in, uncertain - it's easy to slip in and hide while Stark is working, but this feels different. 

"Did you know," Starks says, and Bucky freezes, "that when all those files got dumped on the internet, there was a lot of interesting information in them?"

"Yes," Bucky says when it becomes blatantly obvious that Stark is waiting for an answer. He can't say much else. He's never looked through those files; even if Steve didn't have his internet access restricted, he's never wanted to know what else Hydra made him do, and he's positive that it's written out somewhere, everywhere, were he to look. 

Stark nods. "I know you killed my parents."

A dull roaring fills Bucky's ears. "Stark -"

"Don't. Let's not have that conversation ever, okay? I loved my mother, but Howard - you might have actually done me a favor." Stark's face tightens, like someone's hit him; he curls inward for a split second, then unfolds like a flower, straightening up and crossing the room. Charging towards Bucky, who takes a step back for possibly the first time in seventy years.

"You did me another favor too," Stark says, low and fast, like it's a secret, and Bucky's left blinking in utter confusion.

"What?"

"I read all about it. Hydra wanted to kidnap me. What better than to have a child genius in their control, ready to be molded into whatever they wanted? I was only thirteen, I would've - but you stopped them, it said that the Winter Soldier became violent and killed the team that was after me - and you did that _four fucking times_ , are you insane? Do you even remember what they _did_ to you for that - I read it, it was _awful_ -" Stark cuts himself off, face gone white, only his cheeks flushed with color. Brown eyes bright.

"I don't remember," Bucky admits, but it's not entirely true. There's something way down deep in the core of him that says this is right, though for the life of him he couldn't explain why. The Soldier never cared about anything else. 

"Well, those Hydra idiots were pretty pissed off about it, so I doubt they were lying." Stark turns away, crossing his arms. "They went with another plan instead and got to Stane, but that's a whole other story entirely. The point is, you saved my life when I was too much of a dumb, childish fuck to even realize it was in danger. So if all you want in return is time to yourself and a safe place to hide -"

"Pizza."

Stark looks at him, incredulous. "What?"

Bucky licks his lips, nervous. "I want to leave the tower and have pizza."

Stark just stands there like he's waiting for the punch line. When Bucky doesn't say anything else, he slowly starts to smile. "That, my knight in black leather, can definitely be arranged."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
